This story is enough to make one believe that cats really do have nine lives. Or maybe it’s just a matter of one very lucky life for a tuxedo cat in northern California. Over the weekend, three-year-old Max was shot through the head with an arrow and is recovering from surgery this week apparently as good as new.

Max’s owners are a Santa Cruz couple that discovered the wound on Sunday evening after the cat had been missing for two days. Shocked to see an arrow sticking out of the animal’s head, like one of those fake plastic novelties kid wear around Halloween, the cat acted normally, eating and purring at the sight of his owners.

Max was rushed to the vet where that very night he was put under anesthesia and the arrow was removed. In an amazing stroke of luck, the vet discovered that the arrow went in one side of the cat’s head, through the ear and then out the top without hitting the animal’s brain.

As of yet, no one knows who shot poor Max, but authorities state that if anyone was found to have done this intentionally, they will face animal cruelty charges.

Max may be a lover, but he will no longer be a dandy tom on the town sporting his God-given, natural tuxedo. According to his owners, he is under house arrest and is an indoor cat until further notice.

Max is well enough to not be very happy about that, but all’s well that ends well for a cat who has had a close brush with death and is obviously too cute and too feisty to die.